The present invention relates to module authorization method and system of a navigation device.
Navigation integrated circuit (IC) providers may develop different models of Navigation ICs that are sold at different respective prices. For example, a low-end model Navigation IC without a Geographic Information System (GIS) module is sold at a lower price, while a high-end model Navigation IC with a GIS module is sold at a higher price.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which shows a situation where the GIS module is intentionally utilized with the low-end model Navigation IC. The block labeled “aa DSP” (which, in this example, is a digital signal processor (DSP) having a hardware code embedded therein) represents the low-end model Navigation IC and executes a high level program HL1 implemented with a random access memory (RAM) code named “aa DSP code”. The block labeled “bb DSP” (which, in this example, is also a DSP having a hardware code embedded therein) represents the high-end model Navigation IC and executes a high level program HL2 implemented with a RAM code named “bb DSP code”. By executing the high level program HL2 implemented with the RAM code named “bb DSP code”, the high-end model Navigation IC (i.e. the “bb DSP”) is capable of utilizing the GIS module mentioned above.
As shown in the bottom-most graph of FIG. 1, a hacker intentionally replaces the RAM code “aa DSP code” with the RAM code “bb DSP code” (or an altered version thereof) to be executed by the low-end model Navigation IC (i.e. the “aa DSP”), in order to utilize the GIS module without paying any fee. Obviously, no Navigation IC provider would wish to see this situation since the higher price of the high-end model Navigation IC (i.e. the “bb DSP”) reflects the cost of the GIS module.
If the hacker announces that he/she can replace the RAM code for navigation devices implemented with the low-end model Navigation IC, and such a plan is really carried out, the Navigation IC provider and the manufacturers of the navigation devices will suffer a great loss due to the hacker's illegal activities, and such activities could have far-reaching consequences in the research and development environment, such as decreasing technical innovations in industry.